Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has confirmed that he does not expect any deadline day signings for the record english Champions.
United have added Brazil midfielder Fred, young full-back Diogo Dalot and back-up goalkeeper Lee Grant during the current window and have been persistently linked with reinforcements at centre-back.
Leicester City – the visitors to Old Trafford for Friday’s Premier League opener – are reported to have rejected an offer in the region of £60million for their England international Harry Maguire, while Tottenham’s Toby Alderweireld has also been long touted as a United target.
Barcelona’s Yerry Mina and Bayern Munich’s Jerome Boateng are also claimed to be on Mourinho’s radar, despite contrasting World Cup performances for Colombia and Germany respectively.
“I’m not confident,” he told a pre-match news conference when asked whether another signing might be made.
“The market closes today, so it is time, at least for me to stop thinking about the market because the market will be closed.
Pressed on whether there would be incomings or outgoings at Old Trafford, Mourinho added: “The information I have is no.”
Mourinho outlined a lengthy list of absentees, with Sergio Romero, Antonio Valencia, Marcos Rojo, Ander Herrera, Nemanja Matic and Dalot all unavailable to face Leicester.
It means World Cup stars such as Paul Pogba and Jesse Lingard, who only returned to training this week, are in line for a swift return to action once their manager makes final assessments following Thursday’s training session.
“They returned on Monday, they trained Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and today so you can imagine that they are not really fit and ready but we have needs,” he added.
“The list that I gave you before of the injured players is an important list and after training I will speak with that group of players because everyone is different physically and mentally.
“I will see how available they feel they are and understand how they can help or not help.”
After Manchester United’s last pre season match against Bayern Munich on Sunday Mourinho warned Manchester United face a “difficult season” if they do not strengthen before Thursday’s transfer deadline.
The Reds boss has been outspoken in his frustration with the club’s summer transfer dealings and repeated his concerns after Sunday night’s friendly defeat to Bayern Munich.
“My CEO knows what I want and I still have a few days to wait and see what happens,” Mourinho said.
“The other clubs who compete with us are really strong and already have fantastic teams. Or they are investing massively like Liverpool, who are buying everything and everybody. If we don’t make our team better it will be a difficult season for us.”